VATICAN - Catechesis of Benedict XVI at the General Audience: “All of the theological thought of John Scotus turns into the clearest demonstration of the attempt to express the explainable of the inexplicableness of God, basing itself solely on the mystery of the World made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The thought and work of John Scotus Erigena were the focus of the catechesis give by the Holy Father Benedict XVI during the General Audience on June 10, which took place in Saint Peter's Square. “A notable thinker of the Christian West,” little is known of the origins of John Scotus Erigena. He certainly came from Ireland, where he was born at the beginning of the 9th century, but we don't know when he fully became a part of that cultural world that was arising in 9th century France. His death, scholars say, must have occurred around the year 870. “John Scotus Erigena had a firsthand patristic culture, as much Greek as Latin: He directly knew the writings of the Latin and Greek fathers,” the Pope said. “He showed particular attention to St. Maximus the Confessor, and above all, to Dionysius the Areopagite... classified him as "divine author" par excellence; his writings were, therefore, an eminent source for his thought.”
At the end of the Carolingian era, the works of John Scotus Erigena were forgotten, mainly due to a censure on the part of ecclesiastical authority. Benedict XVI highlighted, however, that “his personal subjective intentions were always orthodox” and in the works that still exist, “he develops stimulating theological and spiritual reflections, which could bring about interesting developments, even for contemporary theologians,” especially “on the duty to exercise an appropriate discernment about that which is presented as 'auctoritas vera,' or on the commitment to continue seeking the truth as long as an experience of the silent adoration of God is not attained.”
John Scotus Erigena affirms that “we cannot speak of God starting from our inventions, but rather from what God himself says about himself in sacred Scripture. Given that God only speaks the truth, Scotus Erigena is convinced...that true religion and true philosophy coincide.” Scripture, the Irish theologian says, “as it comes from God, would not have been necessary if man had not sinned. Therefore, it must be deduced that Scripture was given by God with a pedagogical intention and lowering himself so that man could recall all that had been stamped on his heart from the moment of his creation...and that the original fall had made him forget.”
Some hermeneutical consequences are derived regarding the way to interpret Scripture, the Holy Father said: “It is a matter, in fact, of discovering the meaning hidden in the sacred text and this supposes a particular interior exercise thanks to which reason opens itself to the sure path leading to truth. This exercise consists in cultivating a constant readiness for conversion. To arrive deeply to the vision of the text, it is necessary to advance simultaneously in the conversion of the heart and in the conceptual analysis of the biblical page, whether it be of cosmic, historical or doctrinal character. Only thanks to the constant purification, as much of the eyes of the heart as of the eyes of the mind, can the exact understanding be achieved. This arduous path, demanding and exciting, made up of continuous conquests and relativations of human knowledge, brings the intelligent creature toward the threshold of the divine Mystery, where all notions verify their own weakness and incapableness and lead, therefore, to going beyond -- with the simple, free and sweet force of the truth -- all that is continuously reached. The adoring and silent recognition of the Mystery, which flows into unifying communion, is revealed therefore as the only path for a relationship with the truth that is at the same time the most intimate possible and the most scrupulously respectful of the otherness.” Benedict XVI concluded his catechesis with this point: “all of the theological thought of John Scotus turns into the clearest demonstration of the attempt to express the explainable of the inexplicableness of God, basing itself solely on the mystery of the World made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. The numerous metaphors used by him to indicate this ineffable reality show up to what point he is aware of the absolute incapacity of the terms with which we speak of these things. And, nevertheless, there remains this enchantment and this atmosphere of authentic mystical experience in his texts that sometimes can almost be tangibly felt.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 12/6/2009)